Sorry for the delayed post, but I was finishing up the socks for the second round of Sock Madness. The slots were disappearing quickly last night, so I wanted to take care of that before moving on to other things. But now I’m sitting here with a bowl of ice cream and a mug of tea and the sense of satisfaction that comes from knitting two pairs of socks this last month. I’ll show you pictures tomorrow.

Here are three other beautiful things from my past week:

1. I take the radio into the office so I can listen to the Nationals’ Opening Day game. Play ball!

2. My books are due back to the library and I haven’t even cracked them open. So, of course, I open one while on the Metro to return them and, for the first time in three weeks, actually feel like reading it. Fantasy and mystery are my usual weapons of choice when combating a reading slump and this Janet Evanovich novel, Wicked Appetite, is a fantasy mystery. Perfect!

3. Harold, who is part of the security department at the Washington Times building, helps me get the lug nuts off my tire when I can only find the wrench for Rudi’s old car (Did you know there are different sized lug nuts? Now you do.) and jacks it up for me. But we can’t get the tire off. He offers to stay and help me further, but he’s wearing his Sunday best and I assure him that I’ll be fine. The guy with the wrecker lies on the ground and kicks the tire like he’s throwing a tantrum, but to no avail. In the end, it requires a crowbar to get the wheel off. I’m very glad I checked the doughnut before anyone arrived to make sure it was drivable. And the appropriate wrench is now in the same compartment as the jack.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

I’m way behind in my book posting, but thought I might try to catch up this week. I read this back at the beginning of February:

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

From the jacket: “Sixteen-year-old music- and sound-design-obsessed Drea doesn’t have friends. She has, as she’s often reminded, issues. Drea’s mom and a rotating band of psychiatrists have settled on a ‘touch of Asperger’s.’ Having just moved to the latest in a string of new towns, Drea meets two other outsiders. And Naomi and Justin seem to actually like Drea. The three of them form a trip-hop band after an impromptu jam session. Justin swiftly challenges not only Drea’s preference for Poe over Black Lab but also her perceived inability to connect with another person. Justin, against all odds, may even like like Drea.

My take: This book is precisely the sort of book I would have read in high school. Because of that, though, I knew right from the start how the novel was going to play out. There are some perils to being twice the age of the intended audience.

That said, I enjoyed it. I liked Drea as a main character. She’s never had a friend before, between her illness, which makes her have a hard time reading people, and frequent moves caused by her mom’s poor boyfriend choices. However, when, under duress, they must both move in with grumpy Grandma Horvath, a friend literally appears on the doorstep just after they arrive. Naomi is quick and fun and likes to test boundaries, which makes her both kind of scary for Drea but also exciting. Plus, she can play the drums and, it turns out, has an amazing voice.

That turns out to be a good thing because on her first day of school, Drea meets another new student, Justin, who, after a few false starts, becomes her second friend. He plays the keyboards, has similar taste in music to Drea, and is willing to teach her how to drive.

Unfortunately, just as Drea finally feels like things are coming together for her with making friends, forming a band, and creating a workable family living situation, other things start to show signs of fraying at the edges. Can Drea and her friends work things out to achieve a well-blended harmony? Or will they fall apart in an unsynchronized mess?

Pages: 280

In honor of Earth Hour, an international event created to raise awareness of energy conservation, Rudi and I turned off our computers, unplugged most of our electronics, and prepared to embrace the darkness of a Saturday night in early spring.

I lit candles, Rudi tidied up a bit, and we brewed a pot of tea. Then, as 8:30 rolled around, we turned off the last light in the Burrow and settled in. There was some ambient street noise, but far less than either of us expected.

I knit (albeit slowly) along on Rudi’s sock. Rudi pulled out his guitar and a Beatles songbook, and he played music for me, and we sang and talked about the songs.

The hour flew by and was well on its way through a second one when we realized we hadn’t yet had dinner, so we flipped a few switches in order to cook some food. Otherwise, I think we could easily have stayed in the darkness quite contentedly for the rest of the night.

Every time we do something like this, we say we should do it more often. I hope this time we’ll follow through on it, because it was just about the perfect date night.

I was surprised that today was going to be Thursday, but now that it’s arrived, I find Thursday has lasted about four days. So it’s definitely time to consider three beautiful things from the week past:

1. I missed the deadline of contest sock completion by an hour Friday night. Rudi returned home to find me not done, but instead grimly knitting a toe on the floor in front of my computer, madly muttering about needing it done for my own peace of mind. The next morning, the moderators emailed me and two other knitters who’d also finished just outside the time to say that they’d decided to move us through to the next round anyway.

2. The warm weather has caused two varieties of tulips along my walk to the Metro to bloom. One has wide-open petals, its mouth eagerly anticipating the kiss of the sun. The other resembles a six-year-old told to kiss a distant aunt, lips puckered, but unexcited about the prospect.

3. When I get on the Metro to come home, a teenage girl sits curled up on the seat next to the door. Her slate blue sweater matches her tights, and she is writing with a pink pen (with black ink) in a notebook perched in her lap. A yellow balloon hovers above her, anchored to her wrist with a green ribbon.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

The annual spring reading challenge has arrived. For the fifth year, Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting the Once upon a Time Challenge that encourages readers to spend the season reading from the fantasy genre.

I will be doing the Quest the First, which mandates that one

Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology … or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.

First up on my list is the new Jasper Fforde novel, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, which my local bookstore has on hold for me. After that, I’m hoping to tackle some of the books I have lying around the house or checked out from the library, including Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Bill Willingham’s Peter & Max, and Janet Evanovich’s Wicked Appetite. I also think I have Erin Bow’s Plain Kate hiding somewhere in the Burrow, but I haven’t seen it for a while, so it’s a possibility that it’s actually an entirely different novel. But if I do own it, I’d love to find and read it.

Got any recommendations you think I should check out between now and the start of summer?

This week’s edition of Weekly Geeks asks participants to “tell us ten things about you with regard to books and reading.”

Here are mine:

1. When I moved South, I brought a box of my favorites with me at the same time as we brought the cats and our sleeping bags. We didn’t even have a bed down here, but I had two dozen of my favorite books to keep me company. Nearly every one of them was a children’s or young adult title.
2. I have probably a dozen boxes of books still in my parents’ attic.
3. I usually have several books going at once. I don’t understand why people find that odd.
4. When I’m not reading at all, it’s not a great sign for my mental health.
5. Books are my favorite presents to give — and to receive. I take my choices seriously of what to give people and only very rarely give novels that I haven’t yet read. Likewise, I will give a gifted book much longer than a normal novel if I’m having a hard time getting into it because I know a friend has thought enough of it to share it with me.
6. I can read and walk at the same time. This freaks people out.
7. If I’m caught up in a book, you can talk to me, and even though I might answer you, I am not processing what you’ve said and will likely not remember the conversation. (This used to frustrate my parents tremendously, who were sure I was intentionally ignoring their reminders about chores.)
8. I own two books that used to belong to my paternal grandmother’s sister Dot when she was a girl — one is a Nancy Drew mystery and the other is called Miss Billy by Eleanor Porter, the same woman who wrote Pollyanna.
9. Although I enjoy buying both new and used books, I am an avid library user and make liberal use of the D.C. Library’s online hold system. Periodically I also end up making a sizable contribution to the library through overdue fines. I like to consider it my annual dues.
10. I am indiscriminate about hardcover vs. softcover, and the issue usually comes down to a) is it a new book by a favorite author (such as that Jasper Fforde novel waiting for me to collect it from Politics and Prose) and b) cost (which means unless I can’t stand waiting to own it (Harry Potter novels 5-7, anyone?), I’m going to hold out for the paperback). Paperbacks are easier to carry in my bag and hold while standing on the metro (or while walking home from work), but I can manage with either if it’s a good book.

The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

From the jacket: “Meet Vish Puri, India’s most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India’s swindlers, cheats, and murderers. In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centers and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri’s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri’s resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only has Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking potshots at him and his prize chili plants? And why is his widowed ‘Mummy-ji’ attempting to play sleuth when everyone knows mummies are not detectives?”

My take: A couple of bloggers whose taste runs similar to mine had favorably reviewed this detective novel, so when I saw it at Christmas, I reminded myself to request it from the library. However, after the first few chapters, I was a little afraid I was going to loathe the main character, Vish “Chubby” Puri, who is old-fashioned, opinionated, and more than a little obnoxious. He dislikes being compared to Sherlock Holmes, because Holmes is both a foreigner and a fictional character. Compare him to Chanakya, instead, please. He dislikes the “modernization” of India, which contributes to a seething unrest amongst the lower classes and which so often separates adult children from loving parents who can keep them out of trouble. (Of course, he’d prefer his own Mummy stay at home with the aunties and leave his business alone.)

But after a while, the good parts of his character drew me in. Chubby is dedicated and tries to do right by people, regardless of their class. He has a keen eye and quick intellect and values others with the same traits. Much of his current business is focused on looking into the backgrounds of those entering into arranged marriages, since now that so many people live in the cities, it’s harder for local matchmakers and aunties to make sure the unions they’re advocating are right.

Interspersed between these cases, though, Chubby does try to do some other sleuthing. For instance, he’s on the lookout for the person who shot at him as he was gardening up on his roof. He’s not having a lot of luck with leads, though, and he’s going to be really grumpy if he finds out that his Mummy has disobeyed his direct order to stop looking into the incident.

But what is occupying most of his time is the case of a lawyer noted for taking on the corrupt system who approaches him, saying he’s been wrongly accused of causing one of his maids to disappear in the night. But when officials up the charges to murder and imprison his client, Chubby must hurriedly move his ring of undercover agents into place in order to find out what really happened to a girl known to everyone only as Mary.

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good mystery or who is interested in other cultures. There is a solid glossary at the end of the book that helpfully defines Indian terms, although I found it to be a little distracting to have to keep flipping back and forth during some of the exposition.

Pages: 310

How did you mark the end of winter?

I took down our Christmas cards.

To celebrate the arrival of spring, I caught you a few pictures of flowering spring trees and bushes in the nation’s capital:

And then I spent the afternoon in the garden, which I neglected to put to bed last fall. When I arrived, it looked like this, which is pretty much how I left it, but covered with leaves:

(Incidentally, if you click on that last shot and go to my Flickr page, I’ve put in notes on the picture showing what plants came back/survived the winter. We were pleasantly surprised.)

A few hours later, Rudi and I had much tidier beds and had planted shelling peas, lettuce, spinach, chard, broccoli, broccoli rabe, and onions, but I forgot to take a picture to show you the difference. Next week…

Today is my sixth blogiversary, St. Patrick’s Day, and a gorgeously warm and sunny day all rolled into one. Let’s celebrate by looking back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Karen sends me a photo of her and Livia out for a walk, which makes them feel less far away. Susan brings Holden downtown so we can hang out and have lunch, which brings a sunny spot to the middle of my workday.

2. A bagpiper plays music in the park near my office. The lilting tune wafts through my open window on the spring breeze.

3. Daylight savings time means it’s still light out when I leave the office. It’s a welcome change.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

It’s been one of those weeks…

I contemplated offering you a list with items like “A car so uninteresting that when vandals break in, they don’t even bother to take the spare change.”

HOWEVER…

Except for those really crappy things that seem to be arriving daily this week, a lot of lovely things actually occurred. It would be a shame to give short shrift to those just because some others made faces at me.

So I give you instead, three really beautiful things from my past week:

1. Gramma turned 90 on Monday, but we all agree that the math must be a little funky because 90 is ancient and Gramma is not. I mean, she’s old, but she’s not old. We celebrated with a family party on Sunday that brought nearly 20 of her loved ones together for a buffet dinner that Mum spent a full week cooking up from scratch. Mum also created these great poster collages with photos from nine decades of Gramma’s life that everyone just poured over, and Dad compiled a soundtrack that he burned to cd as a memento for all the guests.

2. Saturday afternoon, I drove out to Rhode Island to have a long overdue lunch with Karen and to meet the newest member of her household. Livia is two months old this week, and I was delighted to finally get to make her darling acquaintance. I also got to spend some time with my favorite toddler, Marshall, who was all flirty and adorable.

3. Samoas can get you through any number of crises, and some days it’s imperative to eat one before breakfast. I’m glad it’s Girl Scout cookie season and that we are acquainted with parents of Brownies.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?